If you’re a leftish Catholic, this probably hasn’t been your best week.
The decision by the United States Council of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) to draft a document addressing Communion this week has made national news, and not just among Catholics. Many writers have pointed out that, while this proposed document doesn’t mention anyone specifically, the discussion of some bishops involved the possible denial of Communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, above all, to President Joe Biden.
Never mind that he’s a weekly Massgoer, or carries a rosary, or can probably sing whatever hymn you mention at the drop of a hat. Because he supports abortion rights, for some bishops (and some lay Catholics as well), he’s beyond the pale and he’s not a “real Catholic”. (A lot of the same folks aren’t happy with his support of LGBTQ+ rights either.)
Biden himself has said that a ban affecting him isn’t going to happen, and he’s almost certainly right. Any policy document like this requires either a unanimous vote of the bishops (which won’t happen), or a two-thirds vote plus approval from the Vatican (which won’t happen either),
Nonetheless, the plan to push through with this document, even in the face of discouragement from the Vatican, shows the priorities of many bishops with a focus on abortion over many other important issues that the Catholic Church for which public officials have expressed a different opinion than the Church.
Pope Francis, for example, formally changed the official teaching on the death penalty in 2018 to declare it “inadmissable” in all cases, but (Catholic) former Attorney General William Barr facilitated no less than thirteen executions in the final six-plus months of the Trump administration, with the final one taking place just four days before Biden was inaugurated. It’s pretty clear, though, that discussions of whom to deny Communion among those who would do so leave in Barr while leaving out Biden and Pelosi.
Other Catholics with their own differences with Church doctrine are left in as well. The USCCB itself has a whole webpage about the “preferential option for the poor” and the need to put the needs of the poor and vulnerable first, but there are quite a few Catholic (and Republican) members of Congress who’ve repeatedly voted against the needs of the poor.
And some Catholics in Congress have gone farther, promoting the lie that the election was stolen and asserting that Biden is not a legitimate president. Ted Cruz voted not to accept election results, even after being threatened by insurrectionists less than 24 hours earlier; Josh Hawley raised a fist to the crowd outside earlier that day. Both are Catholic.
And so is Blue Corolla.
They always park in the back, near the hedges, arriving before I get there and leaving after I do.
In many ways the blue Corolla is a typical car for a Catholic church parking lot; it has a few bumper stickers (the “Equal Rights for Unborn Women” is notable), but the one of the stickers changed early this year.
The car still has the Trump-Pence sticker it had all of last year.
Except Pence is crossed out, blacked out by what looks like (unsurprisingly) a Sharpie.
I live in suburban Portland, in an area which voted for Republicans until the 1990s and voted for Biden by about two to one, and I work in Portland. So I tended not to encounter vocal pro-Trump conservatives even before the pandemic, and while I know there are quite a few at church and I strongly suspect some people I know voted for him, it’s not something that I think about much. (Privilege of being a a white cishet guy, I know.)
The priests rarely bring up political issues in a specific form, not even immigration (which surprises me since one of the two priests is an immigrant himself). In fact, the only political homily I remember is right after the Obergefell marriage equality ruling in 2015, when a different priest (now elsewhere) railed against the “five unelected judges” who had put through the ruling. (My wife put her hand on my leg to make sure I wouldn’t walk out. It was Before you-know-who, and I didn’t. I probably would have if it had happened now.)
I have no idea who Blue Corolla is, and yet there they are, in all likelihood seeing Biden as illegitimate, backing his removal, and buying an alarming amount of pillows with discount codes on TV. They probably wouldn’t think much of me either if they knew who I was and what I believed.
Pope Francis himself has said “I am a sinner, but I trust in the infinite mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I accept in a spirit of penance.” Indeed, I am as well, and so is Blue Corolla (almost certainly).
But the USCCB statement is designed to split Catholics, and exclude some sinners from redemption while leaving others available for it. In a time of disunion—among many churches and among Americans in general—that’s not at all helpful to helping the poor, or ending injustice, or making communities and the world better.
Perhaps I’ve met Blue Corolla before, at a dinner, or outside after Mass, or sat next to them in a pew pre-Covid. I have no idea.
And in this time of distrust of others, especially post-January 6th, I’m not sure I ever want to know who they are.
But I know they’re there, somewhere. One person or more, perhaps quite nearby every Sunday morning, who opposes democracy.